editing disabled

日本語

Let a "17edo primary tetrachord" mean a set of four pitches in 17edo that span a perfect fourth (seven degrees) and include one of each of the following:

  1. the unison - 0 (degrees of 17edo) - solfege name 'do'.
  2. a second - includes 1 (ra, a minor second), 2 (ru, a neutral second), and 3 (re, a major second).
  3. a third - includes 4 (me, a minor third), 5 (mu, a neutral third), and 6 (mi, a major third).
  4. the perfect fourth - 7 (fa).

correspondance:

degrees
cents
name
solfege
0
0
unison
do
1
71
minor second (a.k.a third-tone)
ra
2
141
neutral second (a.k.a. two-thirds-tone)
ru
3
212
major second (a.k.a. tone)
re
4
282
minor third (a.k.a. subminor third)
me
5
353
neutral third
mu
6
424
major third (a.k.a. supermajor third)
mi
7
494
perfect fourth
fa

tetrachord notation


Tetrachord notation will show three scalar steps (as degrees of 17edo) separated by hyphens.

For instance, tetrachord 3-3-1 consists of
0 (do), the unison;
3 (re), a major second, 3 degrees up from 0;
6 (mi), a major third, 3 degrees up from 3; and
7 (fa), the perfect fourth, 1 degree up from 6.

The numbers in a tetrachord name will always add to 7.

17edo primary tetrachords


We have 9 primary tetrachords in 17edo.

tetrachord notation
solfege
name (suggestions?)
used in
1-3-3
do ra me fa
phrygian
diatonic (phrygian)
1-4-2
do ra mu fa


1-5-1
do ra mi fa
balkan, Hijaz (arabic)

2-2-3
do ru me fa
Bayyati (arabic)
17edo neutral scale (led)
2-3-2
do ru mu fa
Iraq (arabic)
17edo neutral scale (bish, fish, jwl)
2-4-1
do ru mi fa


3-1-3
do re me fa
aeolian
diatonic (aolian, dorian) ; scorp (mode 3)
3-2-2
do re mu fa
Rast (arabic)
17edo neutral scale (dril, gil, kleeth)
3-3-1
do re mi fa
ionian
diatonic (ionian, mixolydian)

Another way of showing them:

ra
ru
re
me
1-3-3
2-2-3
3-1-3
mu
1-4-2
2-3-2
3-2-2
mi
1-5-1
2-4-1
3-3-1

17edo tetrachords complete

A more generalized tetrachord system would allow multiple seconds or multiple thirds: for instance, 1-1-5 or 5-1-1. Thus, a complete chart of 17edo tetrachords looks like this (with primary tetrachords in bold):

1-1-5
2-1-4
3-1-3
4-1-2
5-1-1
1-2-4
2-2-3
3-2-2
4-2-1

1-3-3
2-3-2
3-3-1


1-4-2
2-4-1



1-5-1




Thus, by allowing multiples seconds or multiple thirds, we add 6 new tetrachords to our 9 primary tetrachords, for a total of 15. Our new ones:

tetrachord notation
solfege
name (suggestions?)
used in
1-1-5
do ra ru fa


1-2-4
do ra re fa


2-1-4
do ru re fa


4-1-2
do me mu fa


4-2-1
do me mi fa


5-1-1
do mu mi fa



See also: tetrachord, 22edo tetrachords, Tricesimoprimal Tetrachordal Tesseract.